He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this many friends together in one place, just hanging out like this. As happy as it made him, it made his heart ache, too, missing Nadia. What would she think of Koji and Rune? He thought they would get along—if they liked him, surely they would like Nadia too. Maybe they would all get the chance to meet someday, though he wasn’t sure if they would end up going back to Earth before heading for the final Arrow.
The realization that there really was only one left felt heavy now that he thought of it. Once they had the last Arrow, they would... Well, he wasn’t completely surewhat. Bring them to the Summer Court, he was sure, but beyond that was anyone’s guess. Maybe it would be like a video game puzzle where the Arrows were the pieces. Or maybe they would have to fight the Summer Queen like a final boss, killing her with the Arrows. Neither of those felt right, though.
“You playing or what?” Rune interrupted his thoughts, nudging him with her elbow. He jolted back to awareness, smiling apologetically at Rune and Koji.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to zone out there,” he said, looking back down at his cards. “Uh... Wait, can we go over this again?”
Rune and Koji came back the following afternoon; by that point Florian was feeling almost entirely better, just a bit sore. It was as good a time as any to talk about what they would do next, now that everyone was gathered together.
“So there’s only one Arrow left,” he started when they’d crowded around the kitchen table, Jerah’s notes and maps set out in front of him. “It’s right near the Summer Court, so... it might be difficult to get to. More than the others, I mean.”
The other three remained silent, looking at him expectantly. After a beat, he continued, “I don’t really have any ideas on how best to do this, to be honest.” He looked between them again; Kade met his gaze with the same stoic expression as always, and Koji’s brows furrowed in thought. Rune frowned, glancing down at the spread of papers in front of them. But none of them said anything else, so he touched the map lightly and tried to explain,
“The Summer Court is in kind of a... a difficult place to reach. It’s not exactly close to any other places I can teleport. I mean, the closest would be the Winter Court, and that would still be further away than any of the other Arrows were from the other kingdoms.”
He pointed on the map where Jerah had circled the Summer Court. The four courts were spread across the western-most landmass: the Summer Court sat on its eastern coast, while the Winter Court was on the west. Traveling from one to the otheron foot, Florian thought, would be like walking from one end of the United States to the other.
“You can only teleport to places you’ve been, right?” Koji asked, and Florian nodded. The dragon shifter visibly hesitated, then continued, “Well,youhaven’t been to the Summer Court, but Thaddeus has. Since he’s tethered to you, maybe that would work?”
The thought had never occurred to him—Florian’s mind raced with the idea, but he still noticed the way Kade frowned. Rune shot Koji a look of confusion.
“Tethered?” she interjected, before Florian could formulate a response. “You have a soul tether?”
Florian blinked, taken aback again. “I... yes? You know what that is?”
She nodded. “Yeah, they say that if you’re with someone who dies at sea, their soul is tethered to you until you can bring them back to the kingdom to put them to rest. I guess I always thought it was more of a folktale, but if you really have a soul tethered to you...” She trailed off. “Who’s Thaddeus?”
Florian sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Rune, but it was a long story. He had skipped over it before, so he supposed now was as good a time as any. Koji smiled apologetically, which Florian waved away.
“What do you know about the Summer Queen?” he asked, then he spent the next half-hour explaining everything he could about Soleil and Thaddeus, and how she had somehow brought him into the Veil to be with her. He explained how he and Kade had gone to Elodie, the witch, to learn more about the spirit tethered to him: Thaddeus, who had been turned into a fae by Soleil, but died in the process. Now after seeing visions of Thaddeus’ life, Florian was pretty sure that it was Soleil’s attempt to bring him back to life that had caused the initial Blight in the Summer Court and surrounding areas. Runelistened silently, though her eyes were wide with disbelief for most of it.
“That’s insane,” she said succinctly when Florian was done. “But I guess I have to believe you. Sheesh, Queen Soleil sounds like a real evil genius kind of lady.”
“I don’t think she wasevil,” Florian replied, laughing nervously. He always felt strange when the topic of Soleil came up, as if whatever was left of Thaddeus’ awareness perked up when she was mentioned. Now he felt a weird compulsion to defend her. “Just... misguided. She loved him and didn’t want him to die.”
Rune gave him a strange look, then snorted. “You sure it’s really a soul tether and not a reincarnation or something?”
“Definitely not that,” Florian replied, though the thought of it made him uncomfortable. He didn’t think it was true—he didn’t really believe reincarnation was a thing, even in the Veil—but the possibility of it was unsettling.
“But the point is, Thaddeus lived in the Summer Court, and now his spirit is attached to you,” Koji said again. “So maybe that would let you teleport there?”
“Maybe,” Florian replied slowly, though he wasn’t sure if that would actually work. Hehadseen glimpses of the Summer Court when he and Elodie had been searching through Thaddeus’ memories, but was that enough? Did he just have to picture the place, or did he need to have been there physically?
He didn’t know, but Elodie might.
“I think we would need to go talk to the witch again,” Florian said, glancing nervously at Kade. The other man’s face remained impassive, but his lips pressed together just a bit—he didn’t like the idea, obviously, but Florian didn’t think he would argue. “She knows a lot more about old magic than me. She might know for sure, or... or know how we could find out.”
Rune’s eyes lit up at that. “I’ve always wanted to meet a hag. Are they as gross and ugly as all the stories?”
Florian laughed, and the tension in the room broke a bit. “I mean, she’s a little... strange-looking, yeah, but I wouldn’t say she’s gross or ugly. She isreallytall, though.”
“Getting there isn’t the only problem,” Kade said, speaking for the first time. He leaned forward and lightly touched one of the pages of Jerah’s notes. “We also don’t know exactly where it is. Jerah’s a lot more vague about this Arrow. He thought it was with a creature in the Blight around the Summer Court, not in a specific location.”
Florian nodded. That had been discouraging to read when he’d been going over his father’s notes; if itwaswith a creature, was it even still alive? Could it have been hiding the Arrow somewhere? Did its magic make the creature even worse than a usual Blight monster?
“That’s true,” he said, nodding. “We’ll be going in blind again for this one, I think. There’s just not enough information.”
A sharp knock at the door interrupted before anyone could respond. The four of them glanced amongst each other with uncertainty, but it was Kade who stood and went to answer the door. Florian craned his neck to watch as it swung open, revealing Torsten standing on the other side with his arms folded across his chest.
